Bouquet of White Roses

Watkins, Franklin

1941

Artwork Information

  • Title:

    Bouquet of White Roses

  • Artist:

    Watkins, Franklin

  • Artist Bio:

    American, 1894–1972

  • Date:

    1941

  • Medium:

    Oil on canvas

  • Dimensions:

    31 1/2 x 27 1/2 in.

  • Credit Line:

    Wichita Art Museum, Roland P. Murdock Collection

  • Object Number:

    M32.42

  • Display:

    Not Currently on Display

About the Artwork

Franklin Watkins is little known today, but the 1948 “Look Poll of Museum Directors and Art Critics” voted him one of the ten “best painters in America.”

A month after the purchase of Bouquet of White Roses, Watkins wrote a charmingly unaffected note:

This note to tell you about the white roses. I hope it is a very simple picture, for I tried to make it so. To say as simply as I could that I loved the fragrance, the vitality, the energy, and life in those pallid, active forms. I just tried to show why I like white roses so very, very much” that’s all.

I am awfully proud that you liked the painting and that the Wichita Museum owns it.